2,055 entries categorized "Law Enforcement / Criminal Law"

May 12, 2016

Politico reports FBI Director James Comey said Wednesday he feels "pressure" to complete the federal investigation into Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's private e-mail server competently and quickly. However, Comey said the pressure is similar to other high-profile cases the bureau handles such as terrorism investigations. Comey indicated he's not taking into account political events, including the upcoming conventions or the fall election. "I don't tether to any external deadline," the FBI chief said.

May 09, 2016

The New York Times reports a Mexican judge has ruled that Mexico’s most notorious drug lord, Joaquín Guzmán Loera , can be extradited to the United States, where he would face federal charges of drug trafficking and far slimmer chances of escaping prison, as he has done twice in his home country. The ruling essentially creates the basis for the Ministry of Foreign Relations in Mexico to grant the final approval for the extradition of Guzmán within the next 30 days. “The ball is now in the Foreign Ministry’s court and they have a month to execute the process or not,” said a spokesman for the judiciary in Mexico. “They have been notified and received the file.”

April 28, 2016

The Wall Street Journal reports the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced Wednesday it wouldn't consider telling Apple Inc. how the agency was able to unlock a terrorist’s iPhone. The decision brings to an abrupt end an internal government debate about how much to tell Apple about a newly discovered security vulnerability in one iPhone model. The FBI decision not to initiate a broad governmental discussion called the Vulnerabilities Equities Process—in which a number of agencies explore whether to disclose software vulnerabilities to the affected companies—means Apple will likely be kept in the dark about exactly how the government was able to crack the model 5c iPhone used by Syed Rizwan Farook, who along with his wife killed 14 people in San Bernardino, Calif., in December.

April 21, 2016

The Washington Post reports a federal prosecutor in New York has opened a criminal investigation involving the Panama Papers — a trove of materials from a Panamanian law firm that show a massive, secretive world of offshore industry. In a letter to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara wrote that his office had “opened a criminal investigation regarding matters to which the Panama Papers are relevant,” and he asked to speak with someone who had worked on the project. The Guardian newspaper, which was among those to analyze the materials, posted a copy of the letter on its website.

April 20, 2016

The Washington Post reports a public advocate appointed by the nation’s secretive surveillance court last year argued that a little-known provision of the PRISM program, which enables the FBI to query foreign intelligence information for evidence of domestic crime, violated the Constitution. But the court disagreed with her. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court asked Amy Jeffress, the advocate, in August to assess the provision, according to a court opinion filed in November but released by the intelligence community only on Tuesday

April 14, 2016

The Washington Post reports Microsoft wants a federal judge in Seattle to strike down a law that allows courts to prohibit a tech company from telling customers that the government has sought their data. In a civil suit filed Thursday against the Justice Department, the tech giant revealed that in the past 18 months alone federal courts have issued almost 2,600 orders preventing Microsoft from alerting customers their data has been obtained in criminal probes. Notably, more than two-thirds — some 1,750 orders — had no fixed end date.v

April 13, 2016

The Washington Post reports the FBI cracked a San Bernardino terrorist’s phone with the help of professional hackers who discovered and brought to the bureau at least one previously unknown software flaw, according to people familiar with the matter. The new information was then used to create a piece of hardware that helped the FBI to crack the iPhone’s four-digit personal identification number without triggering a security feature that would have erased all the data, the individuals said. The researchers, who typically keep a low profile, specialize in hunting for vulnerabilities in software and then in some cases selling them to the U.S. government.

April 06, 2016

The Washington Post reports FBI agents entered Keith Gartenlaub’s home in Southern California while he and his wife were visiting her relatives in Shanghai. Agents wearing gloves went through boxes, snapped pictures of documents and made copies of three computer hard drives before leaving as quietly as they had entered.The bureau suspected that Gartenlaub was a spy for China.The FBI had obtained a secret search warrant to enter the house, citing national security grounds. But since the search in January 2014, no spy or hacking charges have been brought against him. Instead, seven months later, he was charged with the possession and receipt of child pornography. He has denied the charges, but a jury convicted him in December.

April 01, 2016

The Washington Post reports a Maryland appeals court has issued what civil liberties groups called the first appellate opinion in the country stating that police must obtain a warrant before using covert cellphone-tracking devices, rebuking Baltimore police and prosecutors for “misleading” judges for years about secret and “unconstitutionally intrusive conduct.” Maryland’s intermediate Court of Special Appeals issued the strongly worded opinion late Wednesday following a March 3 order that Baltimore police could not use evidence collected by a cell-site simulator device against defendant Kerron Andrews, charged with attempted murder in 2014. Such devices, known by commercial names such as StingRay, Triggerfish and Hailstorm, imitate a cellular tower to have phones in an area connect to it. That enables real-time tracking of phones. The briefcase-size devices can be transported in vehicles and collect data from any bystanders’ phones in range

March 25, 2016

The Washington Post reports the highest-ranking U.S. Navy officer convicted so far in a massive bribery scandal is expected to be sentenced to years in prison Friday for selling military secrets to an Asian defense contractor in exchange for prostitutes, luxury hotel stays and other favors. Capt. Daniel Dusek, the former commander of the USS Bonhomme Richard, an amphibious assault ship, is likely to receive between two and four years behind bars during his sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court in San Diego, according to court records filed by prosecutors and defense attorneys.

March 24, 2016

The Washington Post reports a Chinese businessman pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in Los Angeles to helping two Chinese military hackers carry out a damaging series of thefts of sensitive military secrets from U.S. contractors. The plea by Su Bin, a Chinese citizen who ran a company in Canada, marks the first time the U.S. government has won a guilty plea from someone involved with a Chinese government campaign of economic cyberespionage. The resolution of the case comes as the Justice Department seeks the extradition from Germany of a Syrian hacker — a member of the group calling itself the Syrian Electronic Army — on charges of conspiracy to hack U.S. government agencies and U.S. media outlets.

The Washington Post reports the Justice Department on Thursday announced it has indicted seven hackers associated with the Iranian government and charged them with cybercrimes. The crimes include disrupting U.S. banks’ public websites from late 2011 through May 2013 and with breaking into a small dam in Rye, N.Y., in an apparent attempt to stop its operation. The indictment marks the first time the government is charging people linked to a national government with disrupting or attempting to disrupt critical U.S. infrastructure or computer systems of key industries such as finance and water.

March 22, 2016

Wired reports just as the FBI’s standoff with Apple seemed to be coming to a head, the government has abruptly changed course. And it may be backing down altogether from the most public battle in the growing war between law enforcement and tech firms over encryption. On Monday afternoon, the Justice Department filed a motion for a continuance on a hearing set to happen tomorrow in Riverside, California, where it would have argued its case that Apple must help it to crack the iPhone 5C of dead San Bernardino killer Syed Rizwan Farook. The FBI hasn’t given up on accessing the data in Farook’s phone. But it now says it may not need Apple’s assistance to crack the device after all, which it had previously told a judge it could legally compel using the 1789 law known as the All Writs Act.

March 21, 2016

The Washington Post reports the U.S. military has stepped up investigations of high-ranking officers for sexual assault, records show, curtailing its traditional deference toward senior leaders as it cracks down on sex crimes. Since September, the armed forces have court-martialed or filed sexual-assault charges against four colonels from the Air Force, Army and Marines. In addition, a Navy captain was found guilty of abusive sexual contact during an administrative hearing. Historically, it has been extremely rare for senior military officers to face courts-martial. Leaders suspected of wrongdoing are usually dealt with behind the scenes, with offenders receiving private reprimands or removal from command with a minimum of public explanation.

The Associated Press reports sitting at a desk in the American embassy in London, a former U.S. State Department employee used his government-issued computer to prey on vulnerable young women and manipulate them into sharing nude photos, amassing thousands of images to make himself feel powerful, prosecutors said. Michael C. Ford, 36, faces years in prison when a federal judge sentences him Monday for sending "phishing" emails to young women, specifically targeting members of sororities and aspiring models, and claiming to be a member of Google's account deletion team, which doesn't exist, to get them to hand over their passwords.

The Washington Post reports the best that officials in Plainfield, N.J., can tell, the hackers got in when someone was on the Internet researching grants, and soon employees in the mayor’s office were locked out of their own files. City officials scrambled to pull servers offline, but three had been compromised, leaving memos, city newsletters and other documents inaccessible. The culprits said they would release the files, but only if the city coughed up about 650 euros, paid in bitcoin, Mayor Adrian Mapp said. When the city instead turned to law enforcement, he said, the hackers vanished. The computers in Plainfield had been infected with “ransomware” — a type of malware that cybersecurity experts and law enforcement officials say is proliferating across the United States and around the world.

March 18, 2016

The Washington Post reports the U.S. Air Force has launched an investigation into illicit, off-duty drug use by troops who protect its nuclear weapons, senior service officials said Friday, the latest black eye for a nuclear force that has suffered several scandals in recent years. The probe centers on 14 enlisted troops between the ranks of airman and airman first class who serve with the 90th Security Forces Group at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyo., said Gen. Robin Rand, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command. He said the investigation focuses on “illegal drug activity,” but would not say whether the allegation focuses on use, sales or both. He also would not say what kind of drugs are involved, or whether the investigation could implicate more personnel.

March 17, 2016

Wired reportsApple’s latest brief in its battle with the FBI over the San Bernardino iPhone offered the tech company an opportunity to school the Feds over their misinterpretation and misquotations of a number of statutes and legal cases they cited as precedent in their own brief last week. Many viewed Apple’s arguments as a withering commentary on the government’s poor legal acumen. According to Apple, many of the cases the government uses to support its argument that the All Writs Act can be used to compel Apple to help crack the phone don’t actually have anything to do with the All Writs Act, or encryption, or anything of relevance to the current case.

The Washington Post reports Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl told the senior investigating officer in his closely watched desertion case that he had mixed feelings about deliberately leaving his infantry platoon’s base in Afghanistan, but felt like he could not go back because he could mistaken for a Taliban fighter, according to the newly released transcript of the interview in his Army investigation. The transcript was published late Wednesday by Bergdahl’s lawyers on a website they have set up to release documents from the controversial soldier’s case. In an interview spanning two days last August, Bergdahl described to then-Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dahl his disillusionment with his Army leaders before he left his patrol base late June 30, 2009, and was subsequently captured by the Taliban

March 14, 2016

Wired reports if there’s anything the world has learned from the standoff over the encrypted iPhone of San Bernardino killer Syed Rizwan Farook, it’s that the FBI doesn’t take no for an answer. And now it’s becoming clear that the government’s determination to access encrypted data doesn’t end with a single iPhone, or with Apple, or even with data stored on devices. It may extend as far as any app that encrypts secrets in transit or in the cloud. Messaging service WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook and has encrypted messages between its Android users for the past two years, is the next tech firm to be drawn into the widening battle between U.S. law enforcement and Silicon Valley over encryption.

March 01, 2016

The Associated Press reports the high-stakes legal fight between Apple Inc. and the Justice Department over a locked iPhone is moving from the courts to Congress. FBI Director James Comey and Apple chief lawyer Bruce Sewell are appearing before the House Judiciary Committee for a hearing on encryption Tuesday afternoon. The hearing comes amid two significant and conflicting court rulings in New York and California on whether Apple can be forced to help the FBI gain access to locked phones. Comey warns in his prepared testimony that technological advancements have been accompanied by "new dangers."

February 17, 2016

The Associated Press reports Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook says his company will fight a federal magistrate's order to help the FBI hack into an encrypted iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino, California shooters. The company said that could potentially undermine encryption for millions of other users. Cook's response, posted early Wednesday on the company's website, set the stage for a legal fight between the federal government and Silicon Valley with broad implications for digital privacy and national security. U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym had ordered Apple to help the FBI break into an iPhone belonging to Syed Farook, one of the shooters in the Dec. 2 attack that killed 14 people. Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, died in a gun battle with police.

February 04, 2016

The Washington Post reports a 21-year-old Kansas man pleaded guilty on Wednesday to attempting to detonate what he thought was a 1,000 pound ammonium nitrate bomb on the Fort Riley Army base in Manhattan, Kansas. John Booker of Topeka was netted in an FBI sting in 2014 when he was introduced to an FBI informant, whoeventually led Booker to another informant. The two insiders helped Booker with the construction of a bomb made primarily of inert components. According to a Department of Justice statement, Booker told the informants that he “dreamed of being a fighter in the Middle East, and proposed capturing and killing an American soldier” and that a suicide attack would ensure that he hit his target.

February 03, 2016

The Associated Press reports a North Carolina man killed his neighbor and stole the man's money so he could buy an assault rifle to carry out an Islamic State-inspired shooting at a concert or club, according to an indictment unsealed Monday. The federal indictment also accuses Justin Nojan Sullivan of offering an undercover FBI employee money to kill his parents, who he believed would interfere with his plans for an attack. The 19-year-old suspect, who was arrested in June, "planned to carry out his attack in the following few days at a concert, bar or club where he believed that as many as 1,000 people could be killed using the assault rifle and silencer," the indictment said. The indictment charges Sullivan with attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State and trying to use social media to have his parents killed. He also faces firearms charges.

January 28, 2016

Wired reports the Anaheim Police Department has acknowledged in new documents that it uses surveillance devices known as Dirtboxes—plane-mounted stingrays—on aircraft flying above the Southern California city that is home to Disneyland, one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. According to documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, the Anaheim Police Department have owned the Dirtbox since 2009 and a ground-based stingray since 2011, and may have loaned out the equipment to other cities across Orange County in the nearly seven years it has possessed the equipment

January 27, 2016

The New York Times reports Ammon Bundy, the leader of an armed seizing of a federal wildlife refuge in rural eastern Oregon, was arrested and one person was killed Tuesday afternoon in a traffic stop in rural Oregon, the F.B.I. and the Oregon State Police said. Seven other people, including. Bundy’s brother Ryan Bundy, were arrested, the authorities said. Another person was hospitalized with injuries that were not life-threatening. The authorities did not identify the man who was killed, but a member of the Nevada State Assembly, Michele Fiore, who has been a supporter of the Bundy family, said on Twitter that it was LaVoy Finicum. Mr. Finicum had become a de facto spokesman for the occupiers.

January 15, 2016

The Washington Post reports a 50-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen, who lived for a time in California, admitted Friday that he was part of a conspiracy to provide firearm scopes, tactical vests and other supplies to a Syrian rebel group that allegedly fought alongside al-Qaeda’s affiliate in that country, authorities said. Amin al-Baroudi, who also goes by Abu al-Jud, pleaded guilty to conspiring to export U.S.-origin goods to Syria in violation of federal sanctions, authorities said. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison at his sentencing May 6. Significantly, though, Baroudi was not charged with lending support to terrorists, and the particular group he admitted supplying with weaponry, Ahrar al-Sham, has disputed that it has links to al-Qaeda or espouses al-Qaeda’s ideology.

January 13, 2016

The Wall Street Journal reports the Federal Bureau of Investigation can make male trainees complete more push-ups than female trainees without violating sex discrimination laws, a federal appeals court has ruled. The ruling this week by the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Richmond, came in a lawsuit filed by a would-be special agent who was one push-up short of passing the physical fitness test at the FBI’s vaunted training academy at Quantico, Va. Men are required to complete 30 push-ups to pass the physical exam, while female trainees are required to complete 14.

January 11, 2016

The Washington Post reports supporters of the Islamic State terrorist group are urging American sympathizers to try to instigate more anti-government demonstrations like last week’s armed takeover of a federal building in rural eastern Oregon. A Twitter posting addressed to members of the Islamic State community describes the ongoing occupation by armed rancher Ammon Bundy and his fellow activists as a “key opportunity,” and suggests that Islamists should do what they can to help them. It urges sympathizers of the organization also known as ISIS and ISIL to encourage the Oregon protesters—using messages sent from accounts with American-sounding names—and to suggest more targets for future take-overs.

January 08, 2016

The Associated Press reports two Iraqi-born men who came to the United States as refugees have been arrested on terrorism-related charges by federal authorities who allege one traveled to Syria to fight with terrorists in the civil war and the other provided support to the Islamic State group. There was no evidence either man - one from Texas and the other from California - intended or planned attacks in the United States, but the arrests announced Thursday, little more than a month after the deadly San Bernardino attack, immediately brought new life to a U.S. debate over whether the United States is doing enough to screen refugees from Syria for terrorists from that nation.

BBC News reports an officer in Philadelphia was ambushed by a man who pledged allegiance to the so-called Islamic State (IS), police officials have said. The gunman, 30, fired at least 11 shots at the officer, in an act done "in the name of Islam." The officer returned fire, striking the gunman at least three times, in what the police chief described as an attempted "execution." The suspect escaped on foot but was apprehended by police shortly after. "This is absolutely one of the scariest things I've ever seen," Police Commissioner Richard Ross said. "This guy tried to execute the police officer. The police officer had no idea he was coming."

January 07, 2016

Politico reports a longstanding and unfulfilled congressional demand for memos about the use of GPS tracking devices in federal investigations triggered a tense exchange Thursday that saw key House lawmakers from both parties bearing down hard on a top Justice Department official. House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) slammed Justice Department legislative affairs chief Peter Kadzik, after he refused to commit to sharing the documents and directives on use of geolocation techniques. Kadzik insisted the memos had not been sent out "far and wide" and that the records amounted to attorney-work product that should be kept confidential.

The Washington Post reports the New York Police Department has agreed to settle a pair of federal lawsuits that claimed Muslims were the target of baseless surveillance and investigations because of their religion. As part of the agreement with civil rights groups that was disclosed Thursday in federal court in Manhattan, the NYPD said it would strengthen the oversight of terrorism investigations and ensure that it follows a series of guidelines to avoid religious profiling. The NYPD’s decision to settle the case is a victory for Muslims in the city who asserted that the department’s intelligence division had gone too far in its efforts to identify potential terrorists after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

January 06, 2016

BBC News reports Enrique Marquez Jr, who stands accused of buying the guns used in the San Bernardino attacks, has pleaded not guilty to the five charges he faces. He was the first person arrested over the deadliest terror attack in the US since 9/11, and could face up to 50 years in prison if convicted. The attacks in early December left 14 dead at a health center in California. Marquez is charged with plotting with gunman Syed Farook to attack a university in 2011 and 2012, as well as providing the two rifles that were used by Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, in the attacks.

January 05, 2016

NBC News reports in a powerful 30- minute address to the nation, Obama outlined his plans to slow the flood of firearms sales and keep weapons out of the hands of potential mass murderers. But the normally stoic Obama grew visibly emotional when he recalled the murders of 20 first graders and six staffers three years ago by a gunman with an assault rifle at the grade school in Newton, Conn. Under the new rules, anyone engaged in the business of selling guns — at stores, at gun shows, over the internet — has to obtain a federal seller's license and do background-checks on the buyers. Obama's initiative also calls for hiring hundreds of examiners to help the FBI do the increased background checks. And it requires weapons merchants to notify the ATF if their guns are lost or stolen.

January 04, 2016

Politico reports President Barack Obama’s bid to assert himself in his final year will begin with long-awaited executive actions on gun control, expected to be released next week, shortly after he returns to Washington. The White House is putting finishing touches on several measures in an effort to make progress on curbing gun violence, an issue the president and close aides have found frustratingly intractable, before the race to replace him enters prime time. According to gun industry insiders and others familiar with the proposals, the changes include requiring an expanded number of small-scale gun sellers to be licensed — and therefore conduct background checks — whenever selling a weapon. This wouldn’t close the so-called gun show loophole, though it has the potential to narrow it.

The Associated Press reports an armed anti-government group took over a remote national wildlife refuge in Oregon as part of a decades-long fight over public lands in the West, while federal authorities are keeping watch but keeping their distance. The group came to the frozen high desert of eastern Oregon to contest the prison sentences of two ranchers who set fire to federal land, but their ultimate goal is to turn over the property to local authorities so people can use it free of U.S. oversight. People across the globe have marveled that federal authorities didn't move to take back the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

December 14, 2015

The Wall Street Journal reports two key New York officials want to ban the sale of firearms to individuals on U.S. terrorist watch lists, a measure they say would deny weapons to suspected terrorists. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, both Democrats, called Sunday on federal officials either to pass a law prohibiting anyone on the lists from purchasing a firearm, or to make watch lists available to individual states so that New York can implement its own ban. Terrorist watch lists are kept classified by the federal government, they said. The proposal comes after Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, a Democrat, promised on Thursday to sign an executive order banning the sale of firearms to people in his state who are on watch lists.

The Washington Post reports a Maryland man has been charged with providing material support to the Islamic State and lying to the FBI, according to U.S. law enforcement officials. Mohamed Yousef ElShinawy, 30, of Edgewood was arrested Friday afternoon at his home. Officials said he was communicating with Islamic State terrorists overseas who sent him money to carry out a possible attack or to travel to Syria. ElShinawy is expected to be arraigned Monday in federal court. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on the details of the case. It was not clear Monday whether ElShinawy has retained an attorney.

December 10, 2015

The Washington Post reports in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris and California, there is growing sentiment among security hawks on Capitol Hill for legislation to ensure that law enforcement has access to encrypted communication. On Wednesday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) became the latest senior lawmaker to call for such legislation. “If there is a conspiracy going on” among terrorist suspects using encrypted devices, “that encryption ought to be able to be pierced,” said Feinstein, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Her remarks came at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing at which FBI Director James B. Comey asserted that it would be “useful” for Congress to “drive this conversation.”

December 08, 2015

The New York Times reports the couple who carried out the deadly attack that killed 14 people here last week had long been radicalized and had been practicing at a target range days before their murder spree, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said Monday. The characterization of the husband and wife team, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, came as F.B.I. investigators were leaning away from the theory that Ms. Malik, who declared allegiance to the Islamic State on Facebook around the time of the attack, had led her American-born husband to the violence. “As the investigation has progressed, we have learned and believe that both subjects were radicalized and have been for quite some time,” David Bowdich, the F.B.I. assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles field office, said at a news conference here.

The Washington Post reports the Army has recommended that David H. Petraeus, the retired general and former CIA director who quit in a scandal three years ago, not face further punishment for having an affair with his biographer and providing her with top-secret materials, according to Pentagon officials. The final decision on whether to discipline Petraeus under military law rests with Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter. Although he could overrule the Army’s recommendation, such a move would be unusual. Peter Cook, the Pentagon press secretary, said Carter has not yet formally received the Army’s recommendation. “Once he reviews the recommendation in full he will make his decision,” Cook said.

December 04, 2015

AFP reports a 55-year-old former Russian tank commander, dubbed the Russian Taliban, was sentenced to life plus 30 years in a U.S. prison for fighting U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Irek Hamidullin was convicted by a U.S. jury in August on 15 counts relating to a 2009 insurgent attack that he masterminded on an Afghan border police outpost near the Pakistani border. He was found guilty of conspiring to shoot down U.S. helicopters and kill U.S. and Afghan soldiers, and of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction among other charges.

BBC News reports a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California is being investigated as an act of terrorism, the FBI says. It followed reports that the woman suspect in the attack had pledged allegiance to Islamic State on social media. Tashfeen Malik, 27, and her husband Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, died in a shootout with police after the killings at San Bernardino, east of Los Angeles. Fourteen people were killed and 21 wounded in Wednesday's attack. Tashfeen Malik is reported to have posted the message on Facebook in support of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The post has since been removed.

December 01, 2015

BBC News reports a court in the Philippines has found a U.S. Marine guilty of killing a transgender woman. Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton was convicted of killing Jennifer Laude in a hotel room in Olongapo city, north-west of Manila, last year. Pemberton will face between six and 12 years imprisonment. The case has strained ties between the U.S. and the Philippines, a former U.S. colony where the Americans have a significant military presence. The Marine was on leave in Olongapo on 11 October 2014, after joint military exercises with the Philippine army, when he met Ms Laude - previously known as Jeffrey - in a bar. The prosecution had argued Pemberton should be convicted of murder, but the court downgraded this to homicide.

November 20, 2015

The New York Times reports Jonathan J. Pollard, the American convicted of spying for Israel, walked out of prison early on Friday after 30 years, but the Obama administration had no plans to let him leave the country and move to Israel and his lawyers immediately went to court to challenge his parole conditions. Pollard, who as a Navy intelligence analyst passed suitcases filled with classified documents to Israeli handlers in the mid-1980s, was released in the early morning hours from a federal prison in Butner, N.C., after receiving parole on a life sentence, ending a long imprisonment that has been a constant irritant in relations between the United States and Israel.

November 18, 2015

The Washington Post reports in the summer, when even top law enforcement officials acknowledged that Congress was unlikely to force U.S. tech firms to make their phones and apps wiretappable, one senior intelligence official noted that the tide could turn “in the event of a terrorist attack.” The horrific Islamic State assault on Paris that claimed 129 lives may be that event, some federal and local officials say. It is not yet clear whether the plotters of the terrorist attacks that killed 129 civilians in the French capital used encrypted channels of communication. That hasn’t stopped some U.S. lawmakers and a number of state and local officials to call on Congress to act.

November 13, 2015

The Wall Street Journal reports governments around the globe are asking Facebook Inc. to ban more posts and to hand over more user data, according to the social network’s latest report on government requests. During the first six months of 2015, 92 countries asked the company to restrict 20,568 pieces of content on Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram that they believed violated their laws. That was more than double the 8,774 requests Facebook received during the first half of 2014 from 83 countries. Requests for user account data also rose 18% to 41,214 in the same time frame.

The Associated Press reports in a case marking the latest embarrassment for the agency that protects the president and his family, a uniformed Secret Service officer has posted bail on state charges of trying to solicit a teenage girl for sex but he's still being held in federal custody. Lee Robert Moore, 37, of Church Hill, Maryland, waived his right to a preliminary hearing without appearing in court Friday in Delaware on state charges of sexual solicitation of a child under 18 and providing obscene material to a person under 18. He is charged separately in federal court with attempted transfer of obscene material to a minor.

November 11, 2015

The Washington Post reports the Justice Department has written a draft policy that if adopted would result in prosecutors pursuing fewer cases against companies for allegedly bribing foreign officials to win business. The proposal is an effort to increase the incentive for companies to be forthcoming about wrongdoing by their officials and give the business community clearer guidance on penalties under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. “Increased transparency benefits everyone,” said Leslie Caldwell, head of the Justice Department’s criminal division, in a May speech that foreshadowed the policy shift.